a walk around Jiangmen.

by two after twenty

I’ve travelled overseas twice in my life: once to Hong Kong when I was 9 (where I had to be hospitalized for most of the trip due to food poisoning), and then a 2-day family cruise when I was 15 (where we only had one dock, which was Nassau … we weren’t able to dock to the other islands due to winds, so most of that trip was spent on the boat). Yeppp, I have a bit of bad luck when it comes to travelling. Anyway, I guess you could say I haven’t had much experience exploring beyond North America, which is why I felt considerably overwhelmed when we arrived in Jiangmen, China.

My brother and I had already spent four days in Hong Kong before taking a ferry to Jiangmen for our dear cousin’s wedding. This would mark my first time to ever set foot in Mainland China – I was nervous and excited (erm, mainly nervous). I was also determined to see as much as I could, so after a (scary) taxi ride to our hotel, we went for a walk around Jiangmen.

We walked a bit through the main roads of the city and then became really fascinated by all of the alleyways we were seeing. Somehow we ended up turning into the alleyways, which lead us to smaller, quieter residential areas. I was ecstatic and I couldn’t put my camera down. Everything was old and beautiful, so different than anything I had ever seen. After an hour of walking, the alleyways started to get narrower and the noise started to escalate. We somehow ended up walking through busy streets laden with shopping stalls, half-pushing our way through crowds of people, dodging group after group of motorbikes. I can’t really explain, but our second half of our walk turned into a roller coaster for the senses, and for the first time in my life, I think I experienced culture shock. It was such a great and unique experience, though – I’ll never forget my first walk around Jiangmen. Unfortunately, it ended kind of sourly – we were lost, the sun had set, we couldn’t find our way back to the hotel, and every taxi refused to take us (since apparently it was a really short drive back). Eventually we found our way back on foot … phew, we were absolutely wiped by the end of it all.

The photos you see below are from the first half of our walk, the quieter alleyways we found. I’ll post photos from the busier second half soon.